What zebrafish and nanotechnology can offer for cancer treatments in the age of personalized medicine

Cancer causes millions of deaths each year and thus urgently requires the development of new therapeutic strategies. Nanotechnology-based anticancer therapies are a promising approach, with several formulations already approved and in clinical use. The evaluation of these therapies requires efficient in vivo models to study their behavior and interaction with cancer cells, and to optimize their properties to ensure maximum efficacy and safety. In this way, zebrafish is an important candidate due to its high homology with the human genoma, its large offspring, and the ease in developing specific cancer models. The role of zebrafish as a model for anticancer therapy studies has been highly evidenced, allowing researchers not only to perform drug screenings but also to evaluate novel therapies such as immunotherapies and nanotherapies. Beyond that, zebrafish can be used as an “avatar” model for performing patient-derived xenografts for personalized medicine. These characteristics place zebrafish in an attractive position as a role model for evaluating novel therapies for cancer treatment, such as nanomedicine.This research was funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos IIIISCIII and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) (AC18/00107, AC18/00045, PI21/01262); by the ERA-NET EURONANOMED III project METASTARG (grant number JTC2018-045) and the ERA-NET EURONANOMED III project PANIPAC (grant number JTC2018/ 041); and by Axencia Galega de Innovación (GAIN), Consellería de Economía, Emprego e Industria (IN607B2021/14). R.P. was funded by RocheChus Joint Unit (IN853B 2018/03) funded by Axencia Galega de Innovación (GAIN), Consellería de Economía, Emprego e Industria. A.P-L. is supported by the Xunta de Galicia Pre-doctoral Fellowship (ED481A-2018/095). L.S. acknowledges the funding given by Consellería de Educación, Universidade e Formación Profesional, Xunta de Galicia local government (ref. ED431C 2018/28)S